Part two of three in our election-season series on what voters and candidates are talking about: Possible pathways could lower workers’ expenses.
A job-seeker moving to Whatcom, Skagit or San Juan counties for a bigger paycheck could find their wage gains negated by child care and housing costs — and that could be a hurdle to drawing new businesses and workers to the region, some economic development analysts say.
“Washington’s population grew by more than 400,000 in the past five years, while the capacity of child care providers grew by just 3,000 children,” reports Child Care Aware, which advocates for better access to child care in Washington.
“Washington ranks third in the nation for least affordable child care for an infant in a family child care program,” they state on their website. “While median household incomes have increased 5% since 2010, median child care rates have increased between 13 and 20% for center-based care and 11 and 31% for family child care.”
Workforce focus
Several candidates in the Nov. 4 general election have presented ideas to offset impacts to wages and help their communities meet economic development goals. Among the ideas:
- reduce commuting costs by building bikeable and walkable neighborhoods that are close to transit options
- encourage businesses to provide child care or child care co-op space on site
- provide incentives for construction of workforce housing.
“We do find that employers sometimes are having trouble bringing new folks in because there’s not a place for employees to live, or it’s at least hard to find housing near their job that’s affordable for whatever their income is,” said Hilary Parker, communications manager for the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County.
“We did a survey, maybe three years ago, and that was one of the things that employers identified as a concern. For a lot of folks, if you have the cost of housing plus the cost of child care, you’re at maybe 50% of your total income, and it doesn’t pencil out.”
Victoria Compton is executive director of the economic development council of San Juan County. She is a single mother of a now-teenage daughter and knows well the effect of child care costs on a household budget.
Median monthly child care costs in the San Juans are $1,495 for toddlers and $1,600 for infants and preschool-age children, according to Child Care Aware. Meanwhile, the median monthly household income was $6,973.50 in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; the median closing price for a home was $862,000; and monthly rent ranged from $1,133 to $1,492, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.
Subtract a monthly mortgage payment on a median priced home — $5,763 — from monthly household income, and there’s $1,210.50 remaining for child care and other monthly expenses.
“Child care is expensive, so that’s a hurdle,” Compton said. “The family resource centers on the islands are working on that. There is a childcare co-op on Orcas and San Juan Island, and the state has a department that’s trying to get businesses to assist their employees with child care. So, there’s momentum on that, but it’s a slow momentum.”
Friday Harbor mayoral candidate Evan Perrollaz, a local hospital district administrator, has talked about ways to buffer wages from high costs. He supports higher wages for town employees, streamlining the permit process for affordable housing and development of workforce housing.
Workforce housing is defined as rented or owned homes that are affordable for middle-income households who do not qualify for housing subsidies but cannot afford market-rate housing in their communities. Targeted residents are typically those earning within the 60% to 120% of Area Median Income.
“The obstacle, to me, right now is the town,” Perrollaz said at a candidate forum before the primary election. “The way that they treat some of these projects needs to be improved. We have to improve our communication. We have to develop relationships with the Home Trust and find a way to get those projects moving forward.
Perrollaz is frustrated when he sees vacant lots in town in the midst of a housing crisis. “We also have a tremendous amount of vacant land in town that is owned by people that don’t even live here and have really no intention of doing very much with that land,” he said. “That’s where our affordable housing should be. We have the infrastructure. We have the time. We have the desire. And we have the people here that want to do it. We have to figure out a way to make that happen.”
That message resonated with Amanda Lynn, executive director of the San Juan Community Home Trust. She said the local library district plans to build a new library and wants to include affordable housing on the new library campus. And the Home Trust is working with San Juan Island National Historical Park and the National Park Service Foundation to study the feasibility of acquiring and preserving “existing housing units as workforce housing for land stewards on the island,” Lynn said.
Partnerships are helping to meet child care needs in Whatcom and Skagit counties, where the child care/home mortgage/median income disparities, though not quite as extreme as in San Juan County, are still daunting for workers with children.
The median monthly household income in Whatcom County was $6,601.66 in 2024, according to United Way of Whatcom County. The median closing price for a home was $635,000. Monthly rents ranged from $1,381 to $1,642. Monthly child care costs ranged from $1,463 for preschool-age children to $1,725 for infants.
In Skagit County median monthly income was a bit higher, and housing costs and child care were somewhat lower. Income was $7,143.33 per month in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median closing price for a home was $579,900 and monthly rents ranged from $1,300 to $1,700, according to Skagit County Trends. Monthly child care costs ranged from $1,240 for preschool-age children to $1,458 for infants.
Students and faculty at Western Washington University may volunteer at WWU’s on-campus child development center and in exchange pay as little as $770 a month for child care and $682 a month for preschool. Fees drop in summer.
The Anacortes Family Center was allowed by the city to build a fourth story on its newest apartment building, The Landing, so it could add a first-floor child care center. The Landing is across from Island Hospital’s emergency entrance, and several apartments are set aside for health care workers at the hospital.
The Samish Indian Nation built an early learning center on D Avenue and collaborated with the City of Anacortes to fund improvements to three adjacent streets. The center is an extension of Samish’s Longhouse Preschool two doors down and has space for 40 children ages infant to pre-Kindergarten.
Beyond child care
Whatcom County Council District 2 candidate Maya Morales supports residential development closer to transit access to help residents save on transportation costs.
“One of the things I think about is the intersection of housing and transportation,” she said at a candidates forum this summer. “I feel like there are ways in which we can build density around current or future transit lines — hubs — but we also need to think about who’s already in our community and whether they now have access to transit, so folks who are in marginalized communities don’t get left behind. We need to be sure that we’re balancing all of our communities’ needs while we build that growth.”
Leah Wainman, candidate for Bellingham City Council Ward 2, said public transportation is critical to a thriving community.
“I have a friend who moved from Philadelphia and public transportation doesn’t run at a regular pace for her to get from the apartment that she could afford to Western Washington University where she works. And so one way that we can support people is to make sure that we have infrastructure in place like public transportation, removing parking minimums, making sure that we’re investing in public transportation so that biking, walking, and public transportation is available to people.”
Anacortes City Council Position 6 candidate Courtney Orrock, who is challenging incumbent Carolyn Moulton, believes there are untapped opportunities to grow the city’s economic base while meeting the need for more homes.
“There is a lot we can do from an economic development perspective here in Anacortes,” she said at a Sept. 9 candidate forum. “A development feasibility study was just done on Sharpe’s Corner. There is a housing component and a commercial component there. There’s also possibly the need for a new fire station at Sharpe’s Corner.
“There is a 12-acre empty parcel on R and 30th that I believe is currently for sale. I was just talking to Marine Trades today about what would be a great use for that property — dry docking. Twin Bridges Marina [outside Anacortes off Highway 20] is completely full and they are just apparently about to build a second building that already is full because they have a wait list. We can drive some of that economic development into our town.”
Anneliese Vance-Sherman, chief labor economist for the state of Washington, said workforce housing and child care partnerships can help make the region more affordable and ease business and worker recruitment.
“There’s an expectation that people can live nearby and get to work, and that puts another constraint on business,” she said. “Washington is a place where people want to live and that continues to drive up the demand for housing, but the supply of housing hasn’t caught up. Well, maybe as a business, I can’t guarantee that people can live nearby, but I can guarantee that they don’t have to go looking for childcare once they do locate in the area.”
— By Richard Arlin Walker
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Making the next step ‘a better choice’,” Oct. 17, 2025
• “Candidates talk affordable housing solutions,” Oct. 13, 2025
• “Uphill climb to housing affordability,” Dec. 10, 2024
• “Mind the gap: Whatcom providers face challenges in meeting need for child care,” April 21, 2023